Homosexuality, what nature not laws decide

Some points on the laws of nature and the nature of the law by my activist friend Mina Swaminathan, a gender activist and child educationist:

1. While eunuchs are the only known man-made category of sexual identity, there were, at the last count, at least nine other kinds defined as natural: all products of nature, like all living things.

2. Homosexuality is found in about ten per cent of the population. Why is something that hinders childbearing passed down so frequently from parents to children?

Researches since 2000, using molecular techniques, show that though there is no specific gene for homosexuality, there is a genetic basis for it. The answer comes, not from the conventional genetics of DNA, but from the complex events and relationships of epi-genetics.

3. Variations are natural. If some of us are divine singers and some are tone-deaf, others cannot see or hear or talk or reproduce. Nature does not discriminate but welcomes all to life. Some succumb to risks early in life, others may live and thrive, but not be able to reproduce.

This is the case with sexual minorities who can, if allowed by law and society, lead full and meaningful lives. Though they cannot reproduce their kind, they can fulfil their natural yearnings through human relationships as children, siblings, spouses and caring, adoptive parents.

4. Tamil Nadu was the first Indian state to recognise the legal identity of sexual minorities, which can lead to other important rights like a name, job, property and bank account, among others. The scope for humane and inclusive law is thus tremendous and justifiable, since variation, in sexuality as in other matters, is one of nature’s own laws.

In sum, I feel that our "constitutional morality" is far more important than so-called "religious" laws which were made (by mere mortals) long before science took off and our understanding of natural laws advanced.

Also read - You too violate 377: Akhil Katyal's poem lays bare India's hypocrisy